Alana Davies for Labour

Well, they didn't waste any time, did they? All the things we feared, all the things we warned about - we were right. The partners in this ConDem Government have reverted to type.

The world-wide economic crisis was not caused by the previous Labour government, but by the banking industry - Private industry, not Public Services.

But the Tories are using this crisis to give them an excuse to put in place their real philosophical policies. While maintaining that their savage cuts are 'unavoidable', they are gleefully penalising ordinary people, threatening jobs, homes and whole communities. Sound familiar? Anyone remember the 80s? Anyone remember Thatcher?

And as for the Lib Dems - they've sold out to the Tories big time. There's no way back for them now. Even local Lib Dem members find it difficult to support their chiefs in Westminster, or to justify what they're doing. But do their masters care? Why should they? Nick is sitting on the front bench like a child in a sweet shop that's been opened especially for him. And Vince is learning not to look so uncomfortable about the whole thing. What price power - and what price credibility.

But here in Wales we have a buffer in the form of the Assembly. While our budgets from Westminster will be drastically cut, at least the WAG can decide how that budget is spent, and what its policies are. Admittedly, it will have one arm tied behind its back by the devastating loss of funding it will receive, but it's there, working for the people and the communities of Wales, doing all it can to minimise the worst of the ConDem policies.

We need the Labour Party as much as we have ever needed them - and we showed it on May 5th. We can show it again in 2012 when we can work to gain control of all the Councils, so that they too can help to offset some of the worst excesses of this appalling government.

The General Election campaign in the Vale of Glamorgan was a very positive experience - we put up a tremendous fight against impossible odds, and the final outcome has resulted in the Vale still being a marginal seat, rather than the safe Tory seat that the Conservatives, and many in the media, had predicted. I made some very good friends in the Vale, and I will always be grateful for their friendship and their support. I also learned a lot from a team of people who have always had to fight hard at every election, and have an excellent campaigning record.